I’d like to share a story about Harley. She is our Catahoula border collie, we got her back in June when she was just 4 weeks old. Why we thought it was a good idea to take on a puppy while managing 5 kids and a new farm not to mention our existing dogs, is beyond me. Actually, it’s my fault and I take full responsibility. See, back I January I lost my best friend, Riley. He was a Maltese Shih Tzu mix. I got him when I was in college some 10 years ago and he died abruptly 6 months after the twins were born. It was a very rough start to 2020 for us as a family. That dog had been through so much with me and he was my ride or die. After his death the kids wanted another dog, immediately. I couldn’t do it, I would get angry and hurt every time I saw pictures of other dogs. It wasn’t until I saw the picture of Harley when I felt that little spark, I didn’t even question, I just told my husband I was ready and he said let’s go get her!
So, we are raising babies, kid goats, and a puppy. Yes, I’m crazy. Yes, I’m in over my head. And no, we shouldn’t have done this to ourselves but we are managing. Needless to say, Harley gets away with a lot because she doesn’t get as much of our attention as she should. Most of time she gets yelled at for chewing up baby toys, or digging holes to the septic tank, even playing in mud puddles. But ultimately she really is a good dog. She has served as such a good companion for our German Sheppard, Shebba, they are best friends and it has brightened Shebba up a lot. She also serves as some help guarding over the farm!
As we are navigating the teething phase for Harley, and the twins, Harley likes to bring branches, not sticks but branches on the front porch to chew. We found ourselves tripping out the front door every time we would go outside. So we tried to get her chew toys. That seemed to spark some sort of creativity in her because then she would find random things on the farm and in the woods to bring on the porch and chew. Such as, hubcaps, oil pans, reclaimed wood, glass whiskey bottles, construction debris, random tools, electrical wires, and spigots. All of which are items that did not belong to us, so in theory she was cleaning up the trash on the land, silver lining!
All was fine and dandy until she ran out of trash and started digging through our actual trash. This was rewarding to her because she would find scraps and such. How she would get to the bags was beyond us at first until we caught our son putting the bags on the ground because they were to heavy to lift. Instead of getting help he thought he was solving his own problem. Unfortunately one morning we went out to find that she tore through several bags and it must have been Christmas for her. One of the things she had a feild day with was the innards of a spaghetti squash. She had strung it all over the place and was eating them. I didn’t think anything of it.
About a week later my husband confronts me and tells me we have a situation and he needs me to make a decision. My first thought was that Harley had done something else terrible, and he either wanted me to send her to obedience school or get rid of her. However, this was not the case. He brought me outside into the front yard and walked me up to several spots in the yard where we now had spaghetti squash growing. I was fairly excited at the fact that I had spaghetti squash growing in my front yard! Until we realized that it was growing from a pile of dog poop. David wanted me to decide whether or not he should mow over it and cut it down or let it grow. Naturally, I said let it grow and let’s see what happens! It seems as if Harley has somewhat found her place on our little sustainable farm contributing in to the circle of life, of a spaghetti squash that is, which is now taking it’s course in our front yard! Would you eat it?
Rye Family Farm 